STORES Magazine - March 2009 - (Page 13)

times, however, they just want to fast forward and find out what the toy in the box is going to look like after they’ve assembled all the little plastic pieces. Over the holiday season, the LEGO Group began testing “digital box” technology in select toy stores and LEGO stores worldwide. The “digital box” is an interactive terminal that utilizes innovative technology supplied by Munichbased metaio. Together with a camera and display screen, metaio’s software fuses virtual 3-D animation into a live video of the actual product packaging. What does that mean for shoppers? Kids big and small can hold special LEGO boxes up to an interactive kiosk and watch a 3-D animation of the product superimposed on the box. As a result, buyers can hold both the box and a virtual image of the finished product in their hands. LEGO Group executives are convinced the technology is a particularly good match for its construction sets which, even when opened right away, can take hours for the owner see what the toy really looks like. Among the sets initially included in the test was an item containing a hydraulic digger and another that included a police station. The biggest trend in fashion this spring has nothing to do with color, shape or hemlines. It’s all about “cheap chic” – finding seasonal items at prices that jibe with shoppers’ new sense of value. A Consumer Intentions and Actions survey conducted last month by BIGresearch finds that 62 percent of all shoppers 18 and older “usually” buy clothing when it’s on sale, and 25 percent only buy when Nugget’s a Gem Retail companies made an impressive showing on this years’ Fortune list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, and that’s especially true of supermarket operators. While many of the same retail names appear annually, this year’s list produced some interesting findings. Chief among them was the number of retailers on the short list of firms claiming never to have had layoffs. Nugget Markets in Woodland Hills, Calif., topped the list, apparel has been marked down. Familiar labels, once a staple in many wardrobes, are now considered less essential in the face of tighter family budgets. When asked if familiar labels were important when buying clothes, 62 percent of women and 55 percent of men said, “no”. The survey also provides insight into respondents’ feelings about fashion. Men (37 percent) are more inclined than women (31 percent) to prefer a traditional, conservative look; more women (16 percent) than men (9 percent) say the newest trends and styles are important. Men (54 percent) and women (53 percent) are on the same wavelength, however, when it comes to their sentiments on the importance of fashion relative to value and comfort. WWW.STORES.ORG STORES / MARCH 2009 13 http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - March 2009

STORES Magazine - March 2009 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Movers and Spenders What Shoppers Think Take Your Laundry Online 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Luxury for Less Q & A CONCEPT2WATCH Checkout Management Online Entrepreneurs Sustainability POS Online Strategy Online Scheduling SaaS Online Marketing Merchandise Security PCI Compliance LPinformation Supplier Directory Exception Reporting Industry Perspective Theft Research LOEB Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar End Cap

STORES Magazine - March 2009

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